


Evolution

by AlexMcpherson79



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Lucy (2014), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Clint Fostered Skye when she was young, Clint decided long ago that Mary Barton sounded much better than Mary Sue Poots, Gen, Lucy is Natasha, Lucy lied about not feeling stuff, Mack Already Calls Her Tremors HINT, Natasha was old before she joined SHIELD, Parental Avengers, Skye has never been paid by SHIELD, Skye just keeps getting in Trouble, Skye knows some of the Avengers, Skye somehow knows almost EVERYONE, Skye's life is really weird, Skye's paycheck comes from Stark, They Lied (Skye's 'Parents')
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:45:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6719317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexMcpherson79/pseuds/AlexMcpherson79
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the fall of SHIELD, almost entirely from her doing, Natasha Romanov found something within the intel SHIELD had been hiding from the world, intel that was quickly erased. She needed to leave, to go find something. 'Loose ends', she'd said to Steve. More like, lost children, and the woman she'd hired supposedly dead by HYDRA's hands so many years ago, yet she knows is still alive.<br/>Of course, during her undercover time in Asia, she became embroiled in a really weird drug operation... then got infected, evolved, saw all of  time and space, and then she was everywhere. But such a state cannot last. Besides, being The Black Widow is more fun... and she needs to wind Coulson up about his parental feelings for her daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cover ID Lucy Miller

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is more of a prologue, set between CA:TWS and the Luc Besson film "Lucy". It is written from the perspective of the reader already have seen both films at a minimum, and is at the very least aware of the various characters from Agents of SHIELD (and a few plot details from season 1 and 2). Small background changes from established will be in the story though.
> 
> Basic backstory for Natasha which goes against that established by Age of Ultron, is that she is the same age as Steve Rogers, she was one of the 'early' successes of the Red Room, clearly before World War II even started, and she was enhanced by a serum similar to the initial formula of Erskines' that was used on the Red Skull. But that one was not as 'strong' in its intended results. Unknown to the Red Room, their little "we sterilise successful students of the Red Room" was only partially successful, in that the serum's regeneration factor allowed her body to eventually 'fix' the damage.  
> She never personally encountered Steve during the war, but there were close calls during some SSR-led assaults on Hydra locations, and she was there 'spying' on HYDRA.  
> During the eighties, she was on a long-term assignment in Asia... undercover work.
> 
> And yes, her mother is alive and well (to allow for a certain scene), though Natasha doesn't keep in touch all that often, though in this case,... well you'll see.

**Loose Ends**

**_Classified Location, Natasha Romanov's secret home_ **

She stared at the files, blown up onto the large screens, lighting her basement in bright white.

A Picture, a name, information, and a death certificate, on one screen.

A mission report, a location, stills from video footage, on the other screen.

One from 1988 - a year after she'd left China.

One from 1992 - only months after she went to find _her_.

The Death certificate was from 1989. The video still was from 1992. And both were about the same woman.

 _Jaiying_.

She needed to know what happened, and... how a dead woman was still walking the earth. And just where her daughter was.

Then it happened.

The files disappeared, and as she took to her computer, she found that a small portion of the intelligence she had was being deleted - erased from the internet and any and all connected computers.

It took her an hour to get a full list of files deleted by comparing it to a backup server she was lucky wasn't connected. A team of SHIELD agents, wiped from record. Mission reports from a dead man - who apparently, isn't quite so dead, from the dates in his mission files. a hacker of 'mysterious origin'. a file about a baby, from 1989, redacted by SHIELD. Connected to the report about something in the Hunan Province in China. The weird thing was, the picture included about the hacker was familiar. very familiar. She'd met her before, but... _Could it be?_ she almost chuckled in amusement, and thought, _Figures, with him involved_.

She picked up her phone, and dialed a number from memory.

" _Hello?_ "

"Hey mom." She spoke.

She could hear the smile. Also she could hear the youth. " _Hey honey. I didn't expect you to call for a while. Where are you now?_ "

"Home, but not for long. Mom, I..." She hesitated, then spoke, "I'm going to go check up on Daisy, and... the family."

Silence for a moment. " _Are you sure?_ "

"Mom-"

" _Having to give her up tore you apart,_ "

"Mom Just-"

" _and you said that the Johnsons were good people..._ "

"Mom!" Silence. "According to the people I used to work for-" She heard a chuckle at that, short and humorless, "They died, yet they're alive."

Silence for a few seconds, then, " _Who? Daisy? The couple who-_ "

"Parents. I think I know where Daisy is now, well, sort of... But I have to check something first."

" _Oh. How... How is my granddaughter? She'll be what, twenty-nine?_ "

"Twenty Eight. And she's... fine." Natasha looked up as her computer got hacked, though she was quick to back-trace the hack, and managed to get video from the hacker's computer at the same time that her webcam became active, and she smiled. "It's kinda funny. I think she's hacking me right now."

" _Oh,. I'll.. um... let you go then?_ "

She said her goodbyes, and hung up. Then she looked directly into the camera, waved, and spoke, "Hello, Skye, right?"

The hacker was obviously shocked, and gaping like a fish. " _Hi?_ " She managed out with a squeak.

"There are about a thousand things we need to talk about, Skye... but unfortunately, I don't have the time, and most are best done in person, and I have... a mission, to get to. Say hello to Coulson for me?"

" _S-sure?_ "

"Be sure to call me Natalie Rushman. It's, an Alias of mine." She waved and ended the call.

She had a plane to Asia to catch.

* * *

**_Meanwhile, aboard the Bus_ **

"Uh, Guys..." She looked at the science twins, then at May and Coulson. The four were talking about their options now they had fled the Hub.

"Skye? What's wrong?"

"... I... have a message for you?" She was barely containing her glee.

Coulson stepped over to her, and took her hands, a calming motion. One he'd never had to use before, which had him worried, she could see it. "What? What's got you so..."

"Excited." Someone offered.

Skye grinned. "Natalie Rushman told me to say hello."

Coulson looked nonplussed.

"Who's Natalie Rushman?"

Now she was coming down, Skye now realized that the team were really confused by this, with Fitz naturally being the one to ask.

"It's an Alias." She began, and Coulson immediately understood, given his groan. "For an Agent. And also. An Avenger."

Suddenly, it was pandemonium as the team tried to ask her how she got to talking with an Avenger, what was said, et all.

* * *

**_Taipei_ **

It was a long Journey, and she had much farther to go, but this lead needed her to stick around.

The guy she'd been "Dating" was shifty as fuck, but the mark he was running some mystery packages for was worse. IT hadn't taken much to precipitate a falling out between the two while the guy had one more package.

She stepped up to the reception desk, playing up the helpless, clueless, and scared shitless role of 'Lucy Miller', pretending not to know mandarin. Little did she know what awaited her.


	2. Descendancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of "Lucy"'s transendence, Several parties become interested. Friends wanting to know what happened to their suddenly-missing partner, enemies wanting to capitalize on both the loss and the information left behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after the film. Any plotholes by making Lucy just Nat undercover (phone to mom) is getting fixed with it, if anyone wants to comment on any.
> 
> Now, we get to see what happens when something like what happened to Lucy, happens in a world with HYDRA.
> 
> Also, 'just because', Skye knew something was off with Ward all along. I'm sorry but I can't believe someone in her position would be that good at faking it if the Ward=HYDRA reveal was 100% a surprise. So here while she doesn't know, she has made the jump that since Garrett was Ward's SO, and Garrett's HYDRA, then Ward might be too, and thinks that his jump from zero social skills to being protective big brother to the science twins (his act and how they react) and banging May, and somehow having the vibe of 'pet project' with Coulson (no she was not jealous, nu-huh!) yet there was that whole he-doesn't-know-how-to-handle-her thing... yeah. she's picked up on it. And something in her past tells her he's not really trying his best to train her. Case in point: How quickly Skye went up in skill in canon under May's tutelage. Though this aint canon like that.
> 
> AO3 Nitpick: Romanoff. Not Romanov. the MCU uses two ff's. It's an issue that crops up when I go to write her.

**Space and Time**

_**Providence Base** _

Skye stared at the footage she'd found.

"What the hell was that?" Eric asked softly.

They had been sent footage, showing _The Black Widow_ , aka the non-powered-just-really-freaking-good-at-hand-to-hand-combat, using telekinesis in a hospital in France somewhere. It would have been funny, some Asian dudes looking like they were just punching thin air, then suddenly flung to the side like bad stunt acting in a film, except they didn't look like they were doing prat-falls, they actually were getting flung about _without_ being touched, and being hovered in mid-air just above head height.

"I... I have to go." Skye said, and Eric slowly nodded. He'd been made aware of her short conversation with the Widow she'd had before the team arrived. Only, instead of looking excited about it, she was worried and didn't have a clue why. Now they both did.

"How are you going to get there? We're in the middle of nowhere."

Skye swallowed a lump in her throat, before answering. "I'll just take the Bus."

"... You're not a pilot, May left like two hours ago, and Ward is _still_ out of contact. And I'm sorry, but five thousand hours on Flight Simulator doesn't count for anything... besides, you'll be spotted by RADAR pretty quickly once out from the base' EM umbrella. And where would-"

Skye just grinned, as she stood up. "All are problems I know how to solve, or aren't even problems. Mind helping me get a care package ready?"

Eric followed her out to a storeroom, and watched as she absentmindedly piled bits and pieces into a tub on a cart.

"What's this for?"

"I'm going to, well... Let me put it this way... you don't need to be a rocket scientist to follow the assembly instructions."

Eric still didn't get it, though he watched as over the course of an hour, he helped from the sidelines as she worked on the Bus, on top, on the wings, and a few other places, and he didn't get it. Until she stood back, held her trusty phone she'd had all along with some 'assembly instructions' on, only now she was hacked into the flight systems... and suddenly the plane _disappeared_.

He stared. "You couldn't have done that, like... months ago?"

Skye's grin faltered. "Actually, no. The files I needed were... released with everything else, well, until I deleted them along with our files."

The agent just nodded, as though it made sense, while Skye remotely deactivated the cloaking tech. "And who's going to fly you there?"

"I am... You didn't get to see my file, my complete, erased file, because I deleted it before I even met Coulson... but I actually can fly a plane."

She had a reminiscent look on her face as she began to get supplies ready, and he got to work on the planes' inventory that hadn't been removed.

* * *

It had taken a long time, a very long time, to concentrate, to stop seeing the universe in its infinite wonder. To focus, on Earth.

She saw all of Space. And All of Time. Not at once, but it was a simple thing to go forward, to go back. She saw that she would retake human form.

She saw her parents finally succumbing to death after so long of chasing it away. She saw her parents perishing in fires, before their time.

She saw through the dimensional walls backward, everything tinted so she knew what was different from her world, and what was her world. She saw the many paths from her 'present' to the future. She saw that she was still bound to Earth, to the time she transcended, and though for a millenia has passed for her, through that anchor, mere days had passed by.

She saw what anchored her. Her daughter. Born as she was to an 'enhanced', the girl could survive many things that would kill others, and those things would trick people into thinking she might be an alien. She saw the path where she didn't enter her daughters' life... and saw how Jaiying tricked her, how Calvin tricked her. No, she wasn't going to stay out of things.

Even as she felt the new body form, different than before, better, containing a well of power that her last body couldn't hold, she locked onto what she learned about her child. As a human reborn, she wouldn't remember most of what she saw, but she would freely give those wonders up to remember this.

* * *

_**The Bus, One Hour Into Skye's Flight** _

She wondered what everyone would say, when they found out that she was at the controls, not May. How Coulson hadn't even asked because he automatically assumed May was going with her when she'd called it in during take-off.

How annoyed he'll be when they link up on her return from Paris.

How he'll react at the part where _she's a pilot_. Evidenced by how she had no trouble flying the bus - with vertical take-off. Maybe Fitz would be annoyed that she didn't go to him for help installing the cloaking tech. Simmons would be worried over how she'd be walking into possible danger _alone_. Trip... actually, she didn't know trip well enough, but enough that she figured he'd make some Captain America comparisons, since he had that tendency. May would be _pissed_. Also, annoyed at both Skye and herself for not catching on.

Skye couldn't help the grin on her face at thinking over how Ward would react. Then lost her smile as she thought over just how little he'd 'taught' her in six months. And how much that kiss felt, or rather, didn't feel. As if it just proved on some level her suspicions.

She blinked as an alert came on, and she quickly hacked her way into the Air Traffic Control and RADAR systems for the area she was coming up on. The bus was invisible to visual, not RADAR. That... was pretty much the difference between her 'just follow the instructions' for a basic setup, and what Fitz would do with a full custom job. Ground-based RADAR sites she could hack and tell the systems not to show the Bus. But if the bus got pinged by another aircraft... like, a military aircraft... Thankfully, she'd changed the transponder codes.

She looked at the flight time left, and sighed.

* * *

Being human again, was... a relief. Yet she felt it, that hidden power. Unlike her last body, this one was designed to hold the power, and to use it for short duration, no side effects. Speed, Strength, Agility, all a little beyond her previous levels. Telekinesis if she wanted. But never would she go to the levels she had under the influence of the CPH4.

She looked around, and as planned, she was in one of her safe houses. One of her off-the-grid safe houses, so SHIELD - as far as she was aware (which was quite a lot) - never knew about it.

The dust was testament to how long ago it was she'd used it.

She stood and walked into the bathroom, idly flicking a finger at the lights and commanding them to switch on despite there being no electricity supply to the house, disconnected long ago. The mirror was, murky, dirt dried into it. A wipe with a hand, yet not touching, and the dirt was gone, the mirror seemingly brand new.

Her hair shifted, back to her trademark red hair. She smiled, as the last version of her uniform coalesced into existence around her... followed by some regular clothes - a loose shirt and pants with a jacket on top, hiding the combat suit.

She moved to return to the lounge, but stumbled on the turn, just managing to get hold of the sink to stop her fall.

Tired. She felt tired, creating the clothes was... tiring.

She smirked to herself as she decided _no more crafting from nothing, at least until I can get my energy reserves up_.

She was hungry.

Using the abilities, she wasn't a being of pure energy anymore, she needed fuel for them.

* * *

_**The Bus, Half an hour from Paris** _

Skye sat back as she thought about it all.

She was too late. By the time she got that video, Romanoff was already gone.

And HYDRA was already picking up the trail.

She was ready for this.

* * *

"Professor Norman?

The elderly scientist turned to the girl who had entered his empty classroom.

Ever since Lucy - _'Who am I kidding, The Black Widow, an Avenger_ ', he thought - had entered his life, all of his ideas, theories, now they weren't and he hadn't a clue of what to do. Though it was the night before yesterday he'd gotten that call, and just yesterday that he'd met her and witnessed her end?

With the recent troubles that had gotten into the media - the fall of a major international intelligence agency and the revelation of HYDRA - he knew for sure that he couldn't let what happened get out. And considering the look of this girl, he supposed that he had failed at that.

"That is I, Miss?"

The girl smiled as she entered the classroom fully. Brunette, Asian... no, half-Asian. American accent. Confident walk. Civilian clothes, but could be hiding weapons.

It worried him that he was thinking that way, or that he could do so quickly. A buzz from his phone had him look at it as the girl approached, and spotted the text from nowhere, 'Trust her -Lucy'. That his phone was already showing the message, and then fizzled and returned to displaying the home screen without his input was enough for him.

"My name is Skye... I'm, a friend of..."

"Lucy's." He finished, and looked up at her, seeing her halt in surprise. "Otherwise known as Natasha Romanoff." He smiled a little, "While I hadn't realized who she was until we'd met in person," His smile faded, "Her, situation as it was, we had no time to reintroduce each other."

Skye nodded. "What did happen? I saw a video where she did some telekinesis stuff, and that video in your lab..."

He Shrugged, took Lucy's, no, Romanoff's, Advice, and trusted the girl. "Whilst she did not go into detail of how she ended up in her situation... she did about what happened to her. A Drug, called CPH4..."

* * *

It didn't take long for the bullets to fly, though both of them were in cover when it did.

"Is there another way out of here?" She asked, in between firing shots at the door.

"T-This way..."

Norman lead, while she covered their retreat, glad that she'd gone armed.

She reloaded as they ducked through a kitchen - well, probably a lab, but after the science twins' lab, a normal set up just looks like a kitchen to Skye - and waited at the exit, poised for a shot. Hydra entered, and she fired. The small explosion was sweet, though it wouldn't hold them back for long.

Finally, they exited out onto a balcony overlooking into a courtyard, and she was glad that HYDRA had not planned for anyone to already be here.

She brought out her phone, and accessed the systems of the Bus.

"Climb onto the roof." She told the professor, who just gave her an incredulous look. "Trust me."

He nodded, and despite his age, managed to climb the sturdy drain pipe - always a drain pipe - onto the roof. She followed soon after, still one-handed tapping on her phone.

"What now?"

She looked up, and grinned as she felt the rush of wind, no, not wind. _Jetwash_. And suddenly, a ramp appearing out of nowhere in mid-air, the ramp lowering down into position while the whole image - ramp and cargo bay of the Bus lowered further down until the lip of the ramp was at chest height. "Get in!" She shouted, and leaped in.

Once they were both up the ramp, she hit the close button on the wall, while tapping into the autopilot to ascend to five thousand feet and set a course for England. She needed to get the plane refueled, before wherever they were going to go next. She handled the sensation of the Bus changing course and velocity easily, since the Autopilot was programmed for a much smoother ride (read: lower acceleration and G forces) than May liked to do it with. But the Professor looked a little green, as he put a hand on the SUV to keep still. "Follow me." She held a hand out to steady him, then moved to the spiral stairs up. with practiced ease, she ascended the stairs as she felt the plane start to bank and accelerate through a smooth ascending turn. The professor was pale and green as he followed, taking twice as long.

When they finally made it to the rear lounge area, she told him to sit down and buckle up, as she continued to the cockpit.

There, she strapped in, brought up the flight data for the autopilot, and switched it off.

Once on level flight, she opened an encrypted comm channel. "Tower Sierra India One One Seven, This is Charlie Sierra Zero One Actual."

" _Charlie Sierra Zero One Actual, Tower. Sign-Countersign. Papa One India Seven Charlie Zero Alpha One Romeo Delta Delta._ "

"Alpha November Romeo X-ray Charlie Hotel Zero Echo One Romeo."

" _Countersign Accepted. Go for Tower._ "

"Tower, On course heading Zero Zero Three, Three Thousand Feet climbing to Two-Five, Distance of Approximately Five Two Zero kilometers. Requesting Landing Approach ETA One Hour, on Runway Alpha. Priority Alpha Victor Golf. Require refuel." She daren't use a civilian or SHIELD base.

There was a pause, then, " _Tower... Acknowledges._ "

* * *

Skye couldn't help being freaked out by the thumb drive in the little plastic wallet.

It looked... like it didn't exist, and that the world didn't exist. No matter how she moved it, looking at it was to look at the stars - the stars are fixed, the thumb drive isn't, and so the stars seem to move, only they're not. like the drive was a window to the universe, and if you move the window around, but not yourself or what it is a window to, only the window changes.

She dared not to touch it, though the professor said it was safe, that he'd already handled it and despite its looks, it felt normal.

"It seems we've made the news." Norman spoke suddenly. She looked up, and camera footage from inside the university was being shown, with the caption 'University Professor Kidnapped by HYDRA'. The news report failed to mention the team of HYDRA agents that were firing at them.

She sighed, and turned to face him.

* * *

_**Elsewhere #1** _

"Still no word?"

"Last word was she was in Paris."

"You're worried about her."

"Aren't you?"

"Eh, she's been in worse situations."

"We don't even know what the situation is."

"I think I've got something."

"Where is she?"

"... Not on her, on this Professor... hmm, he's been kidnapped by HYDRA. I've got video, let me just- woah."

"Wait, HYDRA, can't be..."

"Why, what?"

"Freeze frame... No."

**" _Skye?_ "**

"You know this girl?"

**" _Yeah._ "**

"Wait how do you know Skye?"

"Could say the same to you."

"Look, it's not in either of our files, but... when I was a kid, I was in the foster system. When I aged out, and got myself a pretty good job, I applied to foster, owas approved, and Skye was the first, sixth and last kid I fostered. It's weird, but despite not asking for it, either of us, all three times ended after three months. Then I got in a little bit of trouble, and joined up. I didn't want any of the kids to be targeted, so Skye, who was there when the job offer was given to me, suggested erasing the fostering stuff from my record. Then she went and erased it all. She was only _ten_ , according to her file. She then went and changed my employment record to suggest I'd already had the job for a couple years."

Small Laughter.

"So... you're like her Dad?"

"... Pretty much. She tried calling me that the second time, when I applied to adopt. Her third time with me, she wouldn't call me anything else, since she'd found the application, even though it was rejected. And you?"

"Funny thing, but I hired her ten years ago, to run the Cyber Security Division. Had a problem with Hackers trying to get in. And unfortunately, it's why I couldn't just break in when I realised who was selling the weapons."

"Huh. Even now?"

"Yep. Strange, she didn't mention going to Paris when we talked last week."

"Well, that explains the changes I saw in her when she attended my course back at Culver."

"You too? Who does she _not_ know?"

"You."

"... Not quite."

* * *

_**Elsewhere #2** _

May scowled at the video, "What the hell is she doing?"

Next to her, Hill frowned as she received a text message from her new 'team'. "Damn, we need to warn Coulson, _they_ are investigating."

May nodded, got her own phone, and started to dial.

* * *

_**Elsewhere #3** _

Coulson sighed. Next to him, Trip just whistled. "Damn, when your girl gets in deep, she gets in _deep_."

"I need to call May." He was just about to dial, when it rang. "Speak of the she-devil."

"Don't let her hear you call her that, sir." Trip commented.

"Right." He answered. "May, what the hell are you two up to in Paris?"

" _Me? I was about to ask you the same thing. I thought you went to Oregon... who's with Skye?_ "

Coulson paled. "I thought you were with her...?"

Trip stared at him.

" _I'm in Washington, with Hill right now... How the hell did Skye get to Paris?_ "

By this point, Coulson was white as a sheet. "The Bus. She went in the Bus."

"... _I'm going to kill her! If she's put a single scratch in my plane-_ "

"May! I think that the part where she did get there means she managed it just fine. The Bus does have autopilot... though I know you never used it."

He heard something from the other end, sounded like Hill, then, " _Phil, that's not the issue. She's got a lot of trouble headed her way, and you're not going to believe who._ "

He paused. He knew why Skye went, though he was now almost positive that May didn't. "Please tell me, not the Avengers?"

" _The Aven- Wait, how did you?_ " She sounded nonplussed.

"After that phone call, she kept in touch... last she'd heard Natasha was undercover in Taipei, so for her to suddenly be in Paris, demonstrating some, pretty impressive abilities... The Idea of Romanoff going off the reservation is scary enough, but with those kinds of abilities... I'm guessing this professor is somehow involved."

" _Pick me up on the way_ "

* * *

_**Elsewhere #4** _

Fury frowned. He knew where each member of Coulson's team was.

Coulson, Fitzsimmons along with Trip were aboard a Fast Transport, had just finished cleaning up a problem in Oregon.

Ward had been, like he suspected, a mole on the team. He had not been happy that the team had let him go with Hand to escort Garrett to the Fridge. The security footage he'd seen proved that. Whether the team knew yet, he didn't know, but he knew from Agent E. Koenig's report that Skye had suggested a mission for him before they rendezvoused, and Coulson ran with it. Ward was somewhere in Florida, supposedly on the trail of a Fridge escapee, one of the less dangerous ones if you knew all the details, though on the surface, it sounded like he was entrusted with a pretty important one.

Skye, however, was in Paris. With the Bus. And she'd gone there, in the bus, alone.

There was something familiar about the girl, but he didn't know what. It had been bugging him ever since she stepped foot on the plane last year. She was good. Too good, not to have been noticed before, yet there was no record of her, anywhere.

Then he saw a report from Hill. The Avengers were on their way to Paris. And now he knew why Skye had gone there.

How did he miss this? Why didn't Romanoff contact him to ask about Coulson?

And Why the hell was the Avengers mobilizing because of it, when they didn't even know Skye?

"Sir?"

He turned to Sam, "Ready a Quinjet."

* * *

_**Outside of the Bus** _

Skye frowned, as she signed off on the completion of refuelling the jet.

No one had come aboard, and the Professor was holed up in a spare bunk for the time being, instead she'd left - with the plane on semi lock-down - in order to file the paperwork.

A familiar face, who was apparently visiting the Stark Industries' British arm of the Aviation Research and Development Department was almost running over to her.

"Skye!"

"Yes, I know, I'm not HYDRA, I didn't Kidnap him, I rescued him." She answered once the woman came to a stop, out of breath.

"I... I know... Tony... He's looking for you!"

"Here? Already?"

"No... He's heading for Paris... with the Avengers!" The woman suddenly grinned. "When you get in Trouble, you really do get _in Trouble!_ I don't know how you manage it!"

Skye rolled her eyes at her friends' amusement to her situation. "I can handle it."

"So, the Professor...?" The woman looked up at the plane, trailing off in question.

"Sorry, Classified."

The woman just chuckled, "You do know that SHIELD is gone now?"

"I know... I'd literally just got my badge and was an Agent for all of a _day_."

The woman guffawed, "Only you."

That comment just pissed Skye off. "Not my fault, Pepper. Now, are we done here? I have a guy to get into Witsec and a missing Agent to find."

* * *

Once aboard, the Bus back in the air, she finally managed to get a phone connection to Coulson.

The voice that answered, was not happy, and was not Coulson. " _Skye._ "

She sighed. It was May. "One second May..." She grinned for a moment, as she reached for the button that would- "I just need to switch Autopilot back on."

"... _You're flying manually?_ "

"Hey, I can fly, you know!" She replied, mostly faking her emotional response, as if to suggest they knew she was qualified.

" _Since When?_ "

She paused, and wondered whether or not to tell them, then shrugged. "2004 I think? I got hired for my computer security skills, but I needed to travel a lot so they had me put through a pilots course. Apparently it was cheaper than if they just had me shuttled by commercial, and quicker." She wasn't sure if she should mention _who_ that employer was or not. Coulson wouldn't be happy, though he'd then ask when that employment ended, and she couldn't really explain how her job role included investigating all those who tried to hack in, and that included the Rising Tide, so technically, still employed by them. Still being paid, at her boss' insistence since apparently 'Consultants don't get paid much, if ever'. But considering who he was, no wonder they didn't ever pay him. And no one had asked her how she'd like to be paid, so it balanced out... "Apparently, I'm a natural. The whole, Vertical manoeuvres thing is easy."

Someone else, that would have been teasing. But not when she said it to May.

" _You could have told us earlier._ "

"I... Forgot, okay? I was having so much _fun_ learning how to be an agent, going on adventures of my own... Then I was so focused on the guy who had me shot..." Okay, it was a cheap one mentioning that. "And I know you like to fly. I do to, but for me it's not the actual, you know, piloting, that's why I kept going to the cockpit at night and sitting with you. It's... relaxing. I wouldn't dream of kicking you out of your seat when you're here, but... well, you weren't and this needed doing..."

She didn't need to see to know May was pursing her lips at that, trying to hold in any soft reaction. " _We'll talk about this later. At Length._ "

She heard the phone change hands, then her CO's voice. " _Skye. That goes double for me. For now you need to lay low, wait for us to get to Paris, we're a eight hours out._ "

"Kinda hard to, uh... Lay Low, right now, AC."

" _Where are you now?_ "

She bit her lip, then answers, "Fifty thousand over the Atlantic, on my way back to the States..."

" _That's a huge risk, Skye, I'm surprised you weren't detected on your way there... and you need to turn back before you run out of fuel._ "

* * *

She opened her eyes, and held in the laughter at the situations Skye gets into. And the tears at some of them.

She needed to get in touch, though since the revelation of HYDRA, contact numbers had been changed. For everyone.

Thankfully, she had held onto such information after returning from that energy state. Focussing on _not_ using her abilities, she moved and picked up a burner mobile phone from a desk in the small office space of her safe house, and dialled a number, only to get, as she expected, the busy line signal. Then she dialled Professor Norman's phone, only to frown at the disconnected line message.

She waited all of sixty seconds, and tried the first number again, then again two minutes later. Her fifth try, got through.

" _Hello?_ "

"Skye."

" _... Natasha? You're..._ "

"Alive, and well. Back from the Dead." She tilted her head, in thought, "Like Coulson, I guess."

" _No, Not like Coulson. He was still a physical dead body., You... You... physically disappeared or something!_ "

"Ascended, Descended. Back to being me. Where are you?"

" _About an hours' flight past Ireland, on the way back to the States with the professor. HYDRA, they attacked. I need to get him somewhere safe and protected._ "

"Good. Thank you for..."

" _No problem. I'm guessing it was you who sent me the video? I looked at the meta data, I actually received it not long after it was taken, I just didn't get to check-_ "

"It's okay, Skye. It was me, I... I knew I was dying, but I didn't know what would happen when I did. You did exactly what I thought you would. But I didn't actually die, and now I'm, human again..."

" _The Avengers are all worried about you. They're all on their way to Paris, though Coulson says it's because of me. It's kind of confusing, because the one Avenger who would because of me would already have been there, alone._ "

"I'll call them, I have their new numbers. I'll see you at your teams' new base. Hopefully May won't be too angry at you taking the Bus for a joyride,"

" _Right. Damn I'm in trouble with them. May didn't take kindly to me flying the Bus. Wait how did you-_ "

She smiled as she ended the call, then dialled Steve's new number.

" _Hello._ "

"Rogers."

" _Romanoff?_ " that short very worried voice was quickly echoed with the team's various names for her, from Clint's 'Nat', to Tony's 'Natalie', to Bruce's 'Tasha'.

"Where are you guys?"

" _Going to Paris, to get Clint's daughter out of trouble._ " Steve answered succinctly, and added, " _Who is Tony's head of Cyber Security, and an old student of Bruce's, and she's a girl I met a few times after I first woke up so apparently the world really is that small._ "

She frowned. "I was told you were going after someone the media believes to be a HYDRA agent that 'supposedly' kidnapped a Professor."

" _Skye, HYDRA? I don't think so._ " Tony cut in.

She blinked.

That... was not in what she'd learned about her daughter. Clint's Daug-... _Wait_... "She's _Mary?_ The girl Clint almost adopted before he joined SHIELD?"

Clint answered. " _Yeah... I can't believe you remember that._ "

She slowly started to grin, her daughter was in for a shock, "Well, she knows you guys are going after her, but... I don't think she realises who you all are... well, except for Tony, given that job." Then the tense Steve had used hit her. "Wait, IS? not Was? She's still on your payroll?"

Tony answered. " _Yeah, she was investigating the Rising Tide, but it was getting dangerous, she wouldn't admit to it being more than she could handle, and somehow we came up with the Idea of SHIELD stepping in to protect her, but of course, she doesn't see it that way. She told me about how they were taking her on as a consultant, and well, that pay sucks, in that there is no pay,_ " Natasha frowned at that detail, since it wasn't true to her knowledge, " _So I reduced her workload to just maintaining my companies' security systems, so technically still employed by me. She wouldn't go into what her team was doing, and even stopped me from finding out who her CO is. I mean, really, I just want to make sure they weren't taking advantage of her._ "

She frowned. Apparently, she hadn't held onto as much as she thought she had.

"And Bruce, you, taught her something before you became the Hulk?"

* * *

_**The Bus** _

Skye frowned as she received a text message on her new phone. Only her team and Natasha had the number. And none of them would send a text message. Opening it, she read, ' _The Farm. Go There Directly. -DAD. P.S. YOU WORK FOR STARK?! YOU IN TROUBLE!_ '

How the hell did he find out?

* * *

_**Elsewhere, over the East Coast** _

Coulson frowned at the text message, from an unknown number.

' _FORGET PARIS. FARM. GO OG. Directing Skye There. -Black_ '

"May, we've got a new Rendezvous point with Skye." May blinked. They had already turned around to return to Providence. "Remember where the Farm is?"

"Farm?"

"Clint's place."

She blinked, than frowned. "Who set the RV? Fury?"

Coulson blinked at that, and shook his head, "Natasha."

* * *

_**Elsewhere #2, Over the Atlantic** _

Fury frowned as Sam reported the change in movements - again. The trajectory for all three planes met in one point. He knew what was there, and changed course.

* * *

_**Elsewhere #3, Over the Atlantic** _

Clint frowned as he reluctantly fed JARVIS the coordinates to his farm house. Only a handful of people even knew it existed. Three others, one of them dead, one had, last he checked, been running admin at the Triskelion, retired from field duty, the last running ops out of the Illiad, and three others - Fury, Natasha, and Skye. He'd never been able to match Skye's visits to Laura with his own, and last Laura had spoken to him, she hadn't been by in almost a year now.

He hoped Natasha knew what she was doing, Sending Skye's team there, and telling him to let the Avengers know. Bruce, he could understand. Steve too. Tony is too much of an ass to let go of the idea he kept his family secret. That Tony's head of Cyber Security (Seriously? STARK? SHE WORKS FOR STARK?) was the one who helped Fury set it all up, although at the time she was only Eleven, and impressed the hell out of Fury.

If she ended up with SHIELD now because Fury had found her, knew who she'd been and offered the job for that reason, he was going to strangle the man.

After strangling Tony, with the way he was going on (though thankfully he was yet to know what the deal with the farm was).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers talk, order of dialogue, in case you didn't figure.  
> Clint Barton; Steve Rogers; Clint Barton; Steve Rogers; Tony Stark; Steve Rogers; Tony Stark; Clint Barton; Steve Rogers; Tony Stark; Tony + Clint; Steve Rogers; Tony + Clint; Clint Barton; Tony Stark; Clint Barton; Steve Rogers; Clint Barton; Tony Stark; Clint Barton; Tony Stark; Bruce Banner; Steve Rogers.
> 
> So yeah, in this story: Clint Barton is her unofficial adopted Father... along with Laura (I actually am going with that part of AoU) being her unofficial adopted mother because since when do single men get cleared to foster children?
> 
> At the start of this chapter (and the end), as far as Skye is aware, the only two avengers she knows are Tony Stark (by way of secret employment she's conveniently forgotten to tell Coulson about every time she could have brought it up because she's scared of his reaction) and Natasha (from the previous chapter).  
> Public knowledge about the Avengers identities is limited. Skye has the data to look it up, but she hasn't yet. But basically, she hasn't connected her unofficial father with the Agent Hawkeye because, as an Avenger, 'Hawkeyes' name was not released to the public, and he looks older. Skye hadn't seen him since before he joined SHIELD, though she does know what organization he joined.  
> She has the pieces, just, so long had passed, that she hasn't thought about it to make the connection.  
> She doesn't connect the Hulk to the reserved quiet professor that taught her, because, again, her time in university was so far off, and overshadowed by the whole Stark Industries thing, that again, between that and very little public knowledge about The Hulk's real identity, she hasn't made the connection yet. She does have the pieces, timing wise - his little experiment and change occurring while she was a student.  
> She does not know Thor.  
> However... Steve, does kind of know her. I'll just say they've met a handful of times. While she was doing her job as Stark Industries' Cyber Security expert, and he his lesser known jobrole of I-dont-always-wear-the-uniform that results in that yes, he's not only met her, but knows her face, yet she doesn't realise just who he was because, though his face is the most well known (next to Tony), she didn't see the face. Or his mask.


	3. The Barton Conspiracy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye, Your life is one big pile of Crazy.
> 
> Or the one where the Avengers learns about Laura and the kids, and Team Bus somehow think that Miles wasn't the only secret boyfriend she had... 
> 
> And Skye gets to meet a blast from the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The sequence of events with the team, from the episode between arriving at Providence and Skye's departure with Ward, well... some of it I accidentally 'oops'ed on. This is the sequence with details.
> 
> Providence has a 'RADAR-Stealthed' Fast Transport Near-identical to Garretts already, as Coulson finds when they brought the damaged Bus into the base. May stuck around to fix it.
> 
> Ward called in, but with the situation at the Fridge, that being Ward and Garrett let a load of people out, Instead of giving their location away immediately, Coulson and Co actually took a dose of precaution, by _not_ telling Ward where they are, instead, they got him to be the 'one man army' that is a specialist to take on one of the escapees while Coulson and Co went to Oregon. Skye is left at the base with May and Eric. Or is it Sam? Or Billy? Anyway, cue May leaving, Skye learning about the events of 'Lucy' regarding Paris, and Eric Not Dying. Yet. But not at all in this story, so don't worry.

_**The Bus - Mid-Atlantic** _

She bit her lip, hesitant, but, well... "Where we're going, where I'm Taking you, it's a... Farm, in the middle of nowhere. Officially it's just a nature preserve with a decent house for park rangers. Unofficially, it's private land surrounded by but not actually part of said nature preserve. I know about it, when SHIELD doesn't, because, it's owned by my dad. I mean, foster dad. I mean... " She took a deep breath, and finished lamely, "The only one who tried to adopt me, because, well, He's my dad, and I'm his daughter."

On the otherside of the coffee table in the rear area lounge, Professor Norman just sent her an amused look at how flustered she got. "I take it that the adoption isn't official, otherwise..."

Skye shrugged, and gazed into the cup of tea that she'd had to settle for. That she blames FitzSimmons for. "It, got rejected. I don't know why there is, only that SHIELD put some protocol in place to move me around, and apparently that meant that no one would be permitted to adopt me." She looked up. "Anyway, When I was fourteen, I ran away from where I'd been placed, and... I was hurt, and Dad was, uh... local. I'd spotted him, but well, he's a SHIELD Agent - real SHIELD, not Hydra SHIELD. He'd been in since the last time I was placed with him, and, I already knew about them back then, right when they were all 'Only SHIELD knows about SHIELD'. He was undercover, but... I was hurting, so I did what I could to learn before walking into the middle of it, support his cover while, well. Anyway After that he got me to safety, and I discovered what he and his wife was doing with the farm. He moved me there - after what he saw, he was _not_ going to let me back into the system - and I helped build it, set up the security for the place, the works." She grinned for a moment, "Imagine Director Fury's surprise when the tiny little thing he'd first met when recruiting my dad learned I was staying there when he was on a visit with Mom and Dad, by encountering some of my 'security' protocols, experiencing them first-hand. Dad had to double up on the warnings not to try to recruit me when I turned eighteen. Anyway, The number of people outside of my family that know about the place is pretty small. Some dead guy, an agent in administration, the Director, my sister, and, well, me."

Norman caught the slip. "Your sister is outside your family?"

"... fellow Orphan, a bit older than me. We, uh... were both together at my last foster home." Skye shifted. "She told me to run, to leave her. I refused. Dragged her with me... weird thing, she disappeared after getting a pair of PhD's at university, and I've only heard bits and pieces from her since." Skye looked distant.

* * *

_**Providence' Jump Jet Fast Transport - Nearing the Barton Farm** _

Looking out of the cockpit windows, Coulson nodded and pointed. "There should be a clearing ov-"

"I have been here before." May cut in, transitioning the high-speed transport plane into non-aerodynamic flight, the rear engines cutting off to idle while a series of thrusters hidden in the fuselage were deployed. SHIELD liked its aircraft to have VTOL abilities.

Unlike the bus or a Quinjet, even in May's hands the SHIELD Jump Jet gave a rough ride as May set the plane down in a clearing only just big enough, given the orientation. Pointed in any other, it wouldn't have fit.

"There's a-"

"Skye has the Bus, Phil." May reminded.

Coulson nodded sheepishly, point made about the size difference, as he moved to the ladder down to the lower passenger hold. Once down and through the bulkhead into the forward area, Phil began, "Trip, take over from May, power the Jump Jet down. Fitz, break out the camouflage netting from the cargo hold. Once Trip's finished, the two get the Jump Jet Covered." He turned to Jemma, thought for a moment, then with a smile, "Simmons, Make sure they behave themselves."

At their outraged looks, and Simmons amusement, She replied. "Of Course, sir. Anything else?"

"Run a quick inventory on our medical supplies. We might be needing them."

"Sir...?"

Remembering that he hadn't told them where they were, what they were doing, yet wanting to keep some secrets that weren't his, he simply explained, "I didn't want you to worry, but Skye left on a mission to Paris two days ago." Trip already knew, but the scientists eyes widened, "She's fine, and is returning with a Professor Norman, whom Hydra were after. Unfortunately, part of their attempt to capture the Professor was caught on tape. Specifically, the bit where Skye got there first. We're close to a Safe house that she's bringing him to, and will be here within a couple of hours. May and I are going to check the area, make sure it's clear and not compromised."

Fitz was confused on something, and he had to ask, "How did Skye get all the way from Canada, and apparently on the way back here, when May is with us? Agent Koenig doesn't strike me as a pilot."

Coulson licked his lips, "It seems Skye forgot to mention a certain skillset."

Trip inserted at their confused looks, "She's a pilot..."

Jemma still looked confused, "We took the only o..ther..." Jemma whispered as realization hit her.

"The Bus?" Fitz added.

"The Bus." Coulson finished.

Jemma's eyes narrowed as she gazed a few thousand miles away, and quietly commented, "Skye, you're in so much trouble."

Amused, Coulson shrugged. "Get in line. I think May called dibs the moment she heard 'Skye flew my plane'."

Ten minutes later, as he and May were leaving, Coulson heard Fitz ask, "Do we have enough netting for the bus too? Or do you think May will try to mi-"

As the pair walked away from the plane, May just growled. "That reminds me. She added stuff without asking."

Coulson slowly nodded as he found a familiar foot-beaten track through the wooded area that took up the majority of the Barton Farm. He knew there were security protocols in place, made by Clint's oldest, Mary whom he'd never met, but she'd be an adult and he didn't presume that those protocols had been maintained, so just in case he let them deal with such things.

* * *

_**Avengers Quinjet** _

"Any word from Tasha?" Bruce asked.

Clint looked up from the pilot seat of the jet. "Not since that first text. I don't know where she is, but I'm sure she's on her way there as well."

"Are we there yet, Legolas?" Tony shouted from the back, upset that he'd been vetoed on suiting up and flying on ahead. Considering that they used Stark-Tech in the construction of their Quinjet, that would involve the jet _slowing down_ , since Stark's onboard suit was slower in order to carry a large arsenal.

Steve moved forward, and glanced nervously at Clint.

"So. You see her as your daughter..."

"Yes." Clint glanced at him, noted the nerves, and though he'd like to shrug it off as the Cap just being the Cap, it still sent a frission of worry down his spine.

Steve was about to speak, when Tony showed his face. "Are we there yet?"

Mentally, he swore that it was like working with a child. Then he remembered Skye, and his own children. No. Tony was worse. And considering his brood, that was saying a lot.

Apparently, Even the Star Spangled-Man let fear rule him at times, since his fear seemed to have him not say what he wanted to, instead make small-talk. "So you're not happy she joined SHIELD, to find out now, given..." Steve winced, realizing that it perhaps wasn't the best choice of subject to try to distract the deadly assassin with.

"It's not that she joined up, or the timing. It's that she didn't tell me." Steve raised eyebrows. "We still talk. Hell, I talked to her a week before Hydra came out, and she only told me that her job," Clint eyed Tony, who was retreating "Had her going all over the world. Malta. England. Italy. It's not that before this, 'Team Bus', she'd joined an Anti-SHIELD hacker group, I knew about that, and I knew she was faking it. I knew it was for work, but I didn't know it was The Rising Tide, that she worked for Stark." He gazed into the distance, and after a minute, as he saw the co-ordinates on the display start to resemble those of the Farm. They were less than an hour out. "Well, not just that. I understand keeping things private, either for security or to stop people worrying." He sighed, and adjusted course as the land below became familiar, relying more on visual, and keying the GPS off. "But just a little Warning? 'Hi dad, the hacker group I worked with are more than I thought so I'm bringing SHIELD in on this one, even though I know that will piss off my boss. Actually, because I know it'll piss off my boss, because it's Tony Stark.' See, not much to it."

Steve looked backward, then again. "She doesn't like Tony?"

Clint laughed. "Hell no. With most, Skye can sneak lies past you and you wouldn't know it, but I taught her how. I know all her tells. And I know that despite loving the whole, Iron Man thing, she doesn't like the man inside the suit." His laughter subsided, as he wondered, "I'm just trying to work out what would make her decide to go to work for him."

Bruce answered. "I... might have had something to do with that. Sort of. I talked to Tony, asked him why, and apparently she was in trouble and he helped her out of it. Something school-related. The only thing I can think of that would..." The two men let Bruce take a breather, then suddenly, with a hard tone they hardly ever heard from him, Bruce spoke. "One of the Students, an intern attached to the not-so-classified side of _the project_ , decided that since she was old enough to play with the big leagues, she was _old enough for everything else_. He didn't jump right into..." Bruce closed his eyes, and breathed deeply for a second, "He started off slow, spending just a little bit of time, paying attention to her. Pretty much mostly the way it should be, if, given he was twenty-two, that were she approaching or turned twenty, would be a pretty nice romance. But her record put her at twelve. And he pulled it off as a secretive thing. I noticed, and tried to warn the guy off. It was when my part in the Biotech enhancement project was kicking into high-gear." Bruce paused, then added, "After the experiment that, changed me, I wasn't sure what had happened to me, no one even knew anything had happened to me, and my time as the other guy was a blank. But as you know, some of the time when I'm him, he remembers me. He remembered enough. When I figured it out, and tried to, to work out what happened in the lab, General Ross discovered my secret, and I was forced to run. He was forced to run. I... I never told Skye about _him_ , but she found me when I disappeared, and she looked frightened about something, something to do with the guy 'he' had dealt with."

The team blinked, and he knew immediately that they got the wrong impression.

"Not, not that kind of permanent." He winced. Clint crossed his legs, and Steve just nodded.

"She... she'd been doing little odd jobs for me, for some of the teachers at Culver. She's a twelve year old on scholarship to a university, taking classes that even adult geniuses can find difficult, and that scholarship only goes so far. I'm pretty sure that half the faculty wanted to adopt her, but the few who even suggested it just got this, look from her. I guess I understand that look now," Clint smiled a little, getting the point. "Given that it was less than two weeks after she used all of her savings to get me a bus ticket to mexico when Tony offered her a job..."

"Wait, she's only twenty-two?" Steve asked.

Bruce shook his head, "Twenty-four, I think."

Clint corrected him, "She should be Twenty-five now. At least. Hard to pin down her age, since she's one of those kids that, it's like she doesn't age for a while, then in a few weeks she's suddenly looking a few years older. She hit one of those spurts every time she lived with me. She went from looking like a three to a five year old, compared to the other foster kids, that first time. And when she was Six, she still looked five years old, though a touch taller, but gained three inches in the space of a month that time. And it hurt like hell. You think Tony's bad whenever Natasha bruises his ego?" He grinned.

Then his grin, and general humor at the memories faded. "Holy... We've got company. SHIELD Jump Jet parked under camo netting."

His mood turned to Ash when Nat called up the team before he could go in 'for the kill', to check who and what.

" _Clint, it's okay, I brought them here... they're Skye's team. Led by Coulson._ "

The team had once wondered how he read the ex-KGB assassin so easily. He just shrugged it off under how some girl called Mary taught him. He'd left out at the time that Mary was his daughter - legal documents or lack of didn't matter to him or his wife - and that training served him well. And right now he saw even on a video chat, that Natasha was not surprised at all about the dead-man issue. That learning such was sufficiently distant for her to have known for at least a month. No. Two.

Before Hydra.

He knew Coulson wouldn't be Hydra, but the members of his team-

" _I'm vetting them before anyone tells them about the farm. They just think this is a random rendezvous in the middle of nowhere._ "

Right.

" _Oh, and Coulson thinks that somehow we wouldn't have learned of his return to the land of the living, despite some of the more, public, incidents. **Pretty sure** that you could have known if you had listened to me back in October. Again after Thor returned and wrecked London._ "

"Does he know you know, or...?"

" _I told Skye to say hi to him shortly after the fall. I saw their records before Skye erased them from my offline backups that she was a thousand miles away from._ "

He smiled, as that sounded like his super-genius daughter.

The 'super-genius' part added because he hadn't even realized what it had meant until now when Bruce said she had been a former student of his.

" _Look, the team don't know of how we're all connected to Skye, okay, and... well, I really want them to only find out when Skye gets here so, not a word, okay? Focus on the dead-man aspect for now, he deserves it for not telling Fury to go screw and calling us the minute he could reach for a phone._ "

* * *

_**The Bus, Mid-Atlantic** _

The flight was long, and she'd been awake longer, in fact, she needed the rest since she hadn't slept since before arriving at Providence... several days ago. So Professor Norman had insisted that she get some rest, since they were quite a while before even passing over the eastern coast of the States. It had been early-afternoon when taking off from England, so she'd tried to wait long enough that Jet-lag wouldn't be a killer at the other end. It was not to be.

Normally, Agent May slept in the small crew cabin directly behind the cockpit. An alarm inside was configured to sound if anything happened, and Skye had enabled it before going to sleep. And so, it was what woke her after only an hours rest.

She entered the cockpit, and sat with a tired frown in the pilot seat... to find that the Bus was picking up a distress call on SHIELD Frequencies.

It took her seconds to discover that it was weak, from nearby and encrypted... and for all of five minutes, it had been playing on a loop. She saw as Jamming was able to overcome it and it was garbled beyond her ability to decrypt, except for what the plane had already recorded. Ten seconds, on loop, a distress call from SHIELD agents. Trapped aboard a SHIELD Aircraft Carrier, that had been mostly commandeered by HYDRA. Unable to escape, and unable to destroy the ship.

And the voice was familiar.

Analysing her course and the origin, she sighed, The Bus was another hours' flight from even being in the area of the ship. The Bus didn't have the fuel to make a stop - either hovering near or landing on the ship. Not to get to the Farm without refuelling somewhere on the east coast.

But the voice...

She reconfigured the Autopilot, and then left to go tell Professor Norman.

He took it well, guessed what she wanted to do pretty quickly as she told him the situation.

"So what's the plan? I know we're..." He hesitated a second, like despite what happened with ' _Lucy_ ' he still found it difficult to believe, "Invisible... but wouldn't they notice a a plane landing on their deck?"

She twitched her lips knowing what he meant. "While the Illiad does have catapult launchers and arrestor wires for regular naval aircraft, it's pretty much devoted to SHIELD aircraft which generally, have Vertical take off and landing ability. Even their combat planes under full load are capable of vertical take-off. So that avenue of discovery is out. But still, yeah they'll notice before we even land, unless someone gets to their air traffic control systems." She winced at that, "Which are located near the stern, on the other end of the ship from where our people are holed up at the bow. And we'll have to land on the stern."

He held her gaze for a moment, then flatly spoke, "You do have a plan, right?"

She nodded. "It's... I put the Bus into a holding pattern sixty thousand feet above the ship, and I go down there on my own to disable the systems. They're too busy taking over and holding back the real SHIELD agents' efforts of resistance to take note. Once I'm in the ATC room, I can direct the plane remotely. And when the bus comes to land, I'll already have set something up to distract."

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skye, You hiding too much!
> 
> Yeah. Here, Skye is a secret badass just waiting till she's alone before lets out her hidden talents ;) three guesses who her 'sister' is.


	4. Weighted Storage Cube, Destroyed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Continuing Adventures of She Who Knows Everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listening to Portal Soundtrack. _This Device has been Modified._
> 
> So, um. a few references might cake their way in.

_**The Bus - Holding at 60,000 Feet above the Illiad, Mid-Atlantic** _

Her own breathing was all she heard as she lowered herself into the HAWDER. SHIELD can suck at the acronyms, sometimes. Best she could figure that one out was 'High-Altitude Water Drop Escape' -Something? She'd been on pure Oxygen since speaking to the Professor about the Illiad. She didn't want to bring the Bus any lower than fifty thousand, nor to close to the Illiad since the Stealth Technology wasn't infallible at that relatively close range. And so she was using this, a piece of equipment that she'd learned about during her first month aboard, yet they'd never had need of.

Essentially, it was a cross between a steerable glider thing, that some SHIELD agents use in freefall over hostile territory that once the agent deployed parachute they kept with them, between that and a one-person submersible manoeuvring pod, like from that James Bond film with Sean Connory and the british Vulcan bomber. It just looked like a bobsled to both Skye and the Professor, when he'd helped her bring it out of storage.

The professor was watching from inside the sealed lab.

She sat up just enough to twist and give him a wave, before getting back into position.

The ramp opened, and then she felt it, the small launch ramp throwing it, and her, out the back of the plane. Into the pitch black. Her helmet had a HUD, and it was projecting the usual orientation data. That she was pointing damn near vertically down at the earth... and then she was flying.

* * *

_**SHIELD Quinjet - ETA Two Hours to Barton Farm** _

"Robert, What about the Artefact?"

" _It's safe, I had Agents I trust move it to another part of the ship._ "

"Not what I meant. Can you..."

" _I know what you meant, Fury. The answer is no. No one has ever returned and fr- Wait one._ " The voice seemed distant then, " _Are you sure? ... Who? ... Never heard of her. ... Wait, Coulson's Hacker? ... Fine, Skye then, You really trust her? ... Don't remind me._ " Fury was blinking in surprise at the mention, then heard something that felt like a slap to the face. " _How soon? ... How, where is-... Fifty Thousand? What is she doing, Jumping out of a plane? ... Right. Fury, It seems I'm about to get some high-level reinforcements, and I'm a little busy. I'll call when we're in the clear. Gonzales Out._ "

Fury blinked at the phone, idly putting it down and wondering just when that girl would stop surprising him... though why Gonzales would refer to her as 'High-Level', he didn't know.

* * *

_**SHIELD Carrier Illiad - Mid-Atlantic** _

Auxilliary Fire Control was a mess. A crowded mess. Isabelle Hartley brushed her sweat-drenched hair out of her eyes with one hand, while hauling a heavy box from a side room into the middle of the control room. The brunette looked tired, and like she'd been through a warzone, because she had. Her friend and trusted student looked the same, though the Blonde had taken all of this in stride.

Suddenly, despite their location and all the jamming in the world, the Blonde's phone started to ring.

Startled, 'Izzy' watched as the blonde answered, paled, grinned, then frowned and produced quite the number of emotional responses.

"You're Doing What?!"

Unfortunately, the outburst caught Agent Gonzales' attention, who looked up from his own phone call.

"Wait One." HE spoke into the phone, then put it down on a desk, and just sent the young agent a look.

"Sir, we've got reinforcements dropping in, as we speak."

Izzy was sure that Bobbi did not look happy at that.

"Are you sure?"

Izzy blinked, it wasn't like their boss to - no, wait. HYDRA. Of course he wanted to be sure before accepting help. the last reinforcements, weren't.

"Positive, no way are they HYDRA."

"Who?"

"Skye and her team."

"Never heard of her."

Bobbi must have heard something from her call, as she held up a hand and put it back to her ear and while Izzy listened, she saw her friend grow even more pale. "So Who's with you? Wait what do you mean? Where's Coulson, May or even that ass, Ward?"

Gonzales blinked, in recognition now. "Coulson's Hacker?"

Bobbi nodded but shot the man a look of annoyance. "Skye. Her name is Skye."

"Fine. You really trust her?" He asked, somewhat harshly. Izzy didn't know what the score was, but there was a strong undertone of the man not liking this, Hacker friend of Bobbi's.

Bobbi nodded, "As sure as you trust Venkman."

Gonzales just grimaced, as did Izzy. The man trusted Venkman, but it didn't mean he liked him. "Don't Remind Me." He griped. "How Soon?"

Bobbi put on an unhappy grin. "Eight minutes."

Everyone listening in blinked at that, "How, where is-"

"She's currently at..." She held up her phone, and smirked. "Fifty Thousand."

"Fifty Thousand, what is she doing, jumping out of a plane?"

The blonde just nodded. "Aye sir."

Izzy had to ask, "Who else is with her?"

"She's alone." Bobbi looked annoyed, but shook it off and finished, "But that's a non-issue, She's _really good_ at what she does."

Izzy felt there was something funny hidden within that comment, and had to ask, "How good?"

"Rated Expert for all firearms, and has enough black belts that it's kind of ridiculous. I think the last three she went for just for the shits and giggles." Izzy's eyes widened fractionally, almost like it was recognition.

Gonzales sighed. He took that to mean that she was still a threat, but not to them. "Right. Fury, it seems I'm about to get some, High-level reinforcements-"

Izzy tuned the man out as she moved over to the now-worried looking Bobbi Morse. "So who's this girl then? She sounds familiar, but I don't know anyone called Skye."

Bobbi whispered, "Mary, my little sister. Remember?"

"Then why are you so worried?"

"I know I said she's, really good, but while she's always been a match for me, even after I qualified as an Agent... she's never been one for the field work. She only started to learn martial arts because her boss was worried over her safety, and she wouldn't let him assign a body guard." She frowned. "And I had to find out through other means that she had joined a SHIELD team as a Consultant, and recently earned a badge of her own. That Girl is in Trouble. Especially when her Dad finds out."

Izzy blinked. "Wait, she got adopted? Who's the dad?"

Bobbi almost smiled, but explained before she answered, "Unofficial, was supposed to be official but it never went ahead, and I'm only telling you because I know you wont repeat it... but, well..." Bobbi leaned in, and whispered into Izzy's ear. "Before he was an agent, she used to be fostered by Clint."

"As in.."

"Yep."

Izzy blinked, then chuckled. "Right. That girl is definitely in Trouble."

* * *

Skye frowned. She felt a chill in the force. Or maybe that was because despite the hundred metres per second rate of fall, and air friction heating the bodywork up a touch, she was still freezing. The friction wasn't making that much of a difference.

She watched the altimeter pass the ten thousand feet mark and almost lost her breath when the drogue chute deployed, steadily reducing the descent speed.

At five thousand, the descent rate was still in the fifty metres a second range, when the upper glider wing portion of the HAWDER was ripped away, and a second drogue chute was deployed, this one pulling the tail end of the fancy bomb up.

At a thousand feet, the main chute was deployed.

A few dozen feet above the surface of the water, her part came up, and she triggered the parachute to detach. The jerk as the submersible hit the water and sank a dozen more feet below the surface had her almost groaning from the shaking, before the preset buoyancy slowed it down.

Then she felt cold for a different reason.

With a sigh, she pushed slightly away from the damn thing, and relied on her helmet display being accurate to pilot the damn thing, and get to near the surface.

Three feet from the rippling surface, and she deployed the remote-camera/periscope accessory... and smiled. On target. Just a minute to get to the ship and find somewhere to pull herself onto the deck.

Ten minutes and she was frowning. She hadn't thought that through properly.

Then, lo and behold, she found some rope that was dangling from one of the Aircraft elevators, one end weighed into the water from some attached debris, that looked damaged, in a torched-and-blasted kind of way.

She stripped the oxygen tank off her back, then started to climb the rope, and hoped she could get rid of the wetsuit somewhere easily.

* * *

_**SHIELD Carrier Illiad** _

She closed her eyes, and waited around the corner. She listened. Words. Steps. Words. Louder Steps. Words. Beat. Beat. She whipped around, raised fist leading the way. Smack.

She opened her eyes, even as her fist opened and grabbed the collar of her victim, her other hand grabbing the pistol from mid-air, and suddenly she had a human shield as cover from which to shoot at her victims' fellow agents.

Shoot. Duck. Shoot. Duck.

She dropped the dead body.

She'll throw up later.

She moved to the doorway they'd come from, and cautiously looked through.

Maybe she won't. Not for using that guy as a meat shield, anyway.

As she moved through the ship, ambushing small groups of isolated Hydra Agents (identifying them by shouting 'Hail Hydra' at them and if they reacted, she fired), she couldn't help the thought that she'd been lucky at the Hub. They'd secured the base pretty quickly after the revelation.

But the Illiad was clearly not so lucky. It's isolation was both a help and a hindrance, and only served to extend the vie for control.

She was alone, then she wasn't.

She stared up, and up, and up. Oil-and-blood covered overalls, wrench in hand, gentle-giant vibe, and definitely looking like he was upset at how half the people he worked with were Hydra agents, she couldn't help feel the relief, as she ran to him and gave him a hug. "Mack!"

"What the- Tremors?"

She chuckled as she pulled away, "Still like to call me that huh?"

"You know you love it, Tremors." He grinned at her for just a moment, then the happy smiles were gone and both took on a more serious stance. "You shouldn't have come."

"I had to. Soon as I recognised the source... I had to go rescue my big Sis, and her adorable little sidekick." Okay, not as serious.

"Side-kick huh? And what are you then? Hero or Sidekick?"

"Please, Mission Command. And I command you to guide me to the Secondary ATC server room."

Mack nodded. "Right, this way. Don't remember your way around?"

Skye just shot him an annoyed look, "You do remember how I was eleven last time I was here, right? And I couldn't exactly explore since I wasn't supposed to be here, yet I was trying to find out what my favourite giant did for a living, and oops I got lost and the ship left port before you found me, and you had to keep me hidden for months..."

Mack just stared at her in glimpses, as he lead the way up and down decks.

It was only when they had to use one that Mack finally pointed out, "You memorised the layout of the ships' air ventilation shafts."

"I'm not that small anymore."

"Could have fooled me."

"Oh will you two shut up and get in this fight already." A third voice spoke interrupted from inside the maintenance area their air shaft passage went through.

"Well, since you invited us," Skye shot back.

* * *

Skye could almost scream at the mess the network was in, but managed to work with the problems anyway. "Swiss Cheese."

Mack, who was guarding the door, looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"This network. I could break every protocol here in my sleep." She sniffed.

"I seem to recall-"

"Hush." Skye interrupted with a smirk, and then the smirk grew. "Okay, my plane is clear to land on the bow, and it's cloaked so, yay. You in touch with Bobbi?" Her smile faded, "My water landing getting here, kinda destroyed my phone."

Mack just silently passed his useless phone to her, trusting she could hack her way to comms.

* * *

She scowled at the old crotchety man who lent on a makeshift cane. "The Illiad cannot be recovered. and Even if it could, you do know that as soon as the Jamming is lifted, the US Navy will come to arrest everyone? I don't want to become a guest of theirs, and I doubt your people want to either."

Gonzales grouched back at her, "And after Agent Romanoff released everything onto the internet, none of my people would ever be able to return to the field. So many people are in danger-"

"I know, I hacked her computers to make sure she couldn't release the data again after wiping a lot of it away and sanitizing a lot of the rest. Just say the word and a lot of your guys can go underground."

"Is that what Coulson's doing? Because I noticed his file was, and then wasn't released."

"GUYS!" Bobbi interrupted. "First things first. We can't regain control of the ship. That we know for sure. Which means we need to Find a way to destroy it. Abandon ship. We need to deny Hydra any resources where we can, and that's right here, right now."

Skye sighed, and nodded. "How many Loyalists..." She paused, and repeated it softly, since it was easier than always saying 'SHIELD agents, I mean, actual, good, be-the-shield SHIELD agents' or some other form thereof, "Do you have...? I know there are a few Quinjets aboard, but, I've got a plane big enough for a few dozen."

Gonzales looked around the room they'd commandeered as a resistance command post, and Skye idly noted that somehow, Agent Weaver was among those Gonzales did his silent-talk thing with.

"Fine. We're agreed." Huh? "We have forty six, not including those in the room. Most are holed up in safe locations, but..."

"... But?"

Mack was the one to answer, since no one else was happy to reveal it, "But getting to them will be tricky, especially with the enhanced that Hydra somehow got aboard." Mack glanced at her, and she almost frowned.

"Enhanced? What kind of ability?"

Bobbi looked like she'd swallowed a lemon, as she answered, "Touch Telepath and some kind of portal-using teleporter."

Skye paled. "She Wouldn't happen to be two inches shorter than me, purple hair, white tank top and orange jumpsuit, mute, with a white gun-like thing on her right arm?"

Nods all around.

"... Chell. Her name is Chell. She's supposed to be dead. She died years ago, when Aperture Science imploded with their attempt at AI in the 80s."

"And how do you know this, Skye?" Weaver asked.

Skye looked at everyone as if they were stupid not to figure it out. "I'm not just a hacker by hobby, it has been my job in the past, and one was investigating the implosion of Aperture Science on behalf of another that had bought the few thought-remaining assets. That's why I know who she is yet should be dead, because _I saw her dead body_. "

* * *

_'Why?_ ' Was the word written over the mute's face. Skye had lured her into a Quarantined area, using something she'd quickly thrown together to be... a paperweight. a big paperweight. And then she had thrown it into that puddle of liquid that used to be a rock, only now, that was a tall rock with weird gaps again.

The purple-haired girl fell to the floor in pain.

Skye looked at the portal gun she'd used, glad for the off-switch she'd hit before that rock had done it's transformation otherwise that would be bad, she didn't know what the rock was, only that it was dangerous.

And the girl knew it too, as she almost sobbed at loosing 'another'.

"You're not a Touch Telepath, are you?"

A head shake.

"Do you know who you've been working for?"

Chell didn't realise it as she used hand gestures to answer.

" _We're_ The SHIELD agents."

Another answer.

"Listen. Just... _Listen_. I'm a true Agent of SHIELD. I have never worked for Hydra. I saw the evidence, every file on every person who is supposed to be aboard this boat. I know who is and isn't Hydra, and you've been working for Hydra."

Skye knew she had her when - ' _Will... Will you make another?_ '

So she passed the girl the portal gun back to her, and nodded in promise. She would make another. Others would think Chelle asked about reforming SHIELD. Skye knew better. . It was to make another cube. Like the weighted storage cube she destroyed.

* * *

Two Quinjets had been hijacked by loyalists, and were headed for realms unknown. Those agents wanted out, and so they had it.

But others, like Gonzales, Weaver, Bobbi, Izzy, they and a good dozen wanted to be Agents of SHIELD. And they were going to join her aboard the Bus. Or rather, she was going to join them, once she'd witnessed the destruction of the Illiad.

Chell had not been all that welcomed by Gonzales' people, at least until she'd proved to the team she wasn't a telepath of any sort. Even then, the 'died-resurrected' factor got to some, and Skye had to silence those by pointing out the hypocrisy of how easily they accepted Coulson's return, and how those who know he's alive only found out over a year after he 'died'.

Only Bobbi, Mack, and weirdly, Izzy, seemed all that accepting.

For his part, Mack just wanted to work with machines and he liked the company.

Skye left the bus, nervous as though she knew Izzy was at the controls, it was like a moment of paranoia she couldn't hold down that they wouldn't return for her.

From the deck, She felt more than saw the plane depart, with all the remaining loyalists but two.

Or one and one plus.

"So, How exactly, are we going to destroy the boat?" Bobbi asked.

Skye just smiled and looked at Chell, who held the portal gun close, protectively, and who gave them a nervous smile.

"Oh, we're not going to destroy the boat. We're going to... move... the boat."

"How?"

Skye licked her lips. "I... There was this, rock, thing, that turned to liquid? That."

"That doesn't say move, just, destroy-"

"No, I felt it. I know what it is." Skye looked at The portal gun, Chell, and back to Bobbi. "It's some kind of portal. And if we hit it with a second portal... while I hit it with, you know..."

Bobbi paled. "But... The control you need..."

The boat shook.

"Control I have."

* * *

Wave after wave of Mooks later, Skye idly wondered, "Do they have a cloning machine somewhere, like that Doctor Who episode?"

Bobbi shrugged even as she ducked beneath a flying hydra goon, and sent a glare at Chell, who was using her gun to great effect.

"Hope not, but either way this is easy."

Skye just grinned, "Hey, it's easy when you start thinking with Portals."

* * *

Skye felt them wrap their arms around her, curling into an awkward ball as Chell aimed her heavily-modified portal gun. One of the portals was already active on the deck behind the cage. And all three were wearing wetsuits.

Skye raised an arm, even as she awkwardly put her other above her, palm facing down., and Bobbi did the count down.

"On Three. _On_ , Not after, not before, _On_ , right?" Both of them nodded. "One. Two. Thr-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now the chapter title kind of makes sense...?
> 
> This _Story_ Got modified by the surprise crossover. And what a surprise - It just came out and then I ran with it.
> 
> Chelle being on Hydra's side at the start is pretty simple: good people (that are spies) in their situation would maybe come across wrong while Hydra agents are most likely at ease with tricking someone into being on the bad side when they think they're not (or just not thinking). 
> 
> So basically, they offered her cake... ;)


	5. Fallout

**_Mid-Atlantic_ **

Bobbi and Chell were chattering, and not in the words kind of way. Skye kind of felt bad for them, except she was just as cold and wet.

And they were both holding onto a piece of debris, floating in the ocean.

In the early morning Light, it was still dark enough that the Bus, hovering overhead, was using search lights to try to find them.

They bobbed up and down in the drink for half an hour, before they were recovered.

* * *

**_The Bus - Mid-Atlantic_ **

Izzy felt almost dizzy as she leant over the edge of the ramp, one hand on the remote control, the other on the top lip of the upper hatch. A steady pulling sensation kept her sense of safety, though, her harness connected to a line preventing her from falling out.

Two searchlights were focussed on an area below, one following the three stranded people, the other the agent that volunteered to go down recover the girls.

She ignored loud talk of what had happened just thirty-odd minutes ago, the sight of the Illiad suddenly loosing a third of its mass, and not in a huge blocky chunk, but in a scar-like way, how that mass had just suddenly _shifted, a dark mass almost like hot liquid tar_ had spread out in rivulets, and in the same second, suddenly turned a bright orange, then that orange light sucked back towards the centre of the ship, taking the areas it had covered with it, yet not so much tearing those pieces away from the rest of the ships' mass, as just like it had already melted those areas. And the remaining sections, mostly unconnected to each other, promptly fell away and began to sink.

How one second, they were looking at the flight deck, the next, open water, above which were three people gathered in a ball and they were falling. Whatever happened to the ship, originating from where they had been in the ship, but not being taken with it.

The sight had prompted her heavily-injured boss to suddenly give in to those very injuries he'd been ignoring, and then had a heart attack on top of it all. _What a waste_ she'd thought ten minutes ago, when they'd discovered his dead body in the lab/make-shift medbay was not just asleep. He survived a week under siege, and he was killed by his heart giving out.

* * *

**Barton Farm**

Fury thanked Laura after taking a long sip of coffee. She just nodded with a small tight smile and left the room.

He gazed back at the satellite footage recording of the Illiad.

Ten frames of footage. One. The Ship Normal. Two. A Black mass at the centre, noticeable despite the footage being taken in the night, the hull actually visible thanks to the approaching daylight. Three. That mass stretching out almost to both ends like tree branches, or more like lightning. Four. It had reached the ends of the ship. Five. That mass turned bright orange, casting light on the darkened ship. Six. Receeding back to the centre leaving a gaping void behind. Seven. Nothing of the black or orange mass, only the ship torn in pieces and missing a lot of itself. Eight. Those pieces falling into the ocean, now separate from each other. Nine. The largest pieces disappeared beneath the waves, smaller lighter pieces still visible. Ten. Small dots, debris left behind that float, and a familiar aircraft hovering over the scene. The Bus. Not visible in the previous images, but it was in this one. But the timing of those frames of footage was too close to allow for the Bus to just not have been in the visible area until then.

Not without being at full forward speed and a lucky timing shot for one, not two or even three frames.

He put the computer down as he heard a door click shut, and he found himself looking at a familiar red-head.

"Hello Agent Romanoff."

Natasha just stared at him. No. Not at him. Over his shoulder.

He turned slightly, and saw that Phil was present, smiling softly at Natasha... he turned to her, and saw as she returned the smile, then sent him a chilling gaze.

"Oh look. Phil's Alive." Fury lamely tried, feeling a sudden sense of impending doom.

"She's already known for a week." Phil spoke, and Fury _Felt_ Phil's toneless gaze on him.

"Since their first mission, actually." Natasha corrected. "Some of Skye's friends in the Rising Tide released video of a guy at a train station dodging a van door thrown at him with almost superhuman agility, but we know to be well within his human capabilities as a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent."

"Then why..."

Natasha grimaced for a millisecond. "It took me a month before I sent the video, among others, to the rest of my team. Apparently they didn't look at the video all that closely I'd sent them since for them, they only just found out tonight. I assumed they already knew when they didn't react, and only Tony said 'yeah, agent' is awesome', and that somehow I wasn't brought in on the secret..." From the room over, all three heard Laura Barton's failing attempt at holding in laughter. Phil rolled his eyes, knowing Stark well enough to see how he'd have watched that video without paying attention, so hadn't recognised his face and his comment was vague and short enough that Nat would have thought Tony was referring to him as "His' First Name is Agent" again.

Fury's laptop beeped, and he brought up the tracking information for the Bus. It was en-route again to the States, but not directly to the Farm.

"Sir?"

"That girl of yours isn't coming here, Phil." Fury told him, and showed him.

Coulson blinked, then asked, "Where is she headed then?"

* * *

**_Washington D.C. - a few hours ago_ **

It had only been a handful of days since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., and in true high-level agent ass-covering, quite to the consternation of many government official, she had already arranged something for her post-S.H.I.E.L.D. career that protected her from prosecution. Though some would say that going from being Deputy-Director of the largest and greatest international Intelligence agency, to working for Stark Industries in some as-yet not-discussed capacity within their Security Division was quite the step-down, it beat being arrested.

And while she had been interviewed by some unknown face within the company, as an acquaintance of Tony Stark's and personal friend to Pepper Potts ever since the Battle of New York, what with taking over Coulson's role of being the S.H.I.E.L.D. point-man in dealing with both Tony and his company, Pepper herself had assured her she'd have a job to get to once the furore died down, in their Security Division for sure.

Pepper had pretty much been her rock these past few days during the public inquiry into S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, to the point that within five minutes of leaving the public hearing at Capitol Hill her phone was already ringing.

She smiled a little, and answered, "Hi Pepper."

" _Hey Maria, how are you doing?_ " Pepper asked, sounding tired on the other end. Maria hoped she was going to bed after this, as after the hell that had been raised because May had, for want of a better explanation, derailed plans for the hearing to have started a day earlier, resulting in today's hearing running way later than normal, Maria guessed that it was almost sunrise in England. Without May's interruption, Pepper would have only been calling while on the company plane while leaving the US.

"Tired, Irritated, annoyed..."

" _So it went badly?_ "

"Yeah, it went as expected. S.H.I.E.L.D. implodes and everyone wants answers. The CIA, NSA, NRO, them I can handle. But Congress? Congress is like Kindergarten. 'Where is this fridge?' 'What was in there?' 'Who or What is a Man-thing?' I swear I need a cocktail, and a lobotomy."

Pepper chuckled and replied, _"I'll be sure to get the bar in your office well-stocked, and book you in with Tony's 'therapist'._ "

"Thanks Pepper." She sarcastically replied.

" _So you've got all the alphabet agencies on your case?_ "

"Yeah, but don't worry, Tony's lawyers are already earning their commissions keeping me from a detention facility. And while they seem, moderately satisfied with my 'interviews' with them, apparently, my every move continues to fascinate them. Tonight's standard issue surveillance package includes, fake yuppie _not_ checking her texts at the bus stop, imposter homeless man, mildly offensive, and the hipster following me looks familiar, he's Russian or something."

" _They'll have to cut that out soon, with Hydra out there. I know we've got some former agents that check out coming in, and they, like you, are getting antsy already._ "

"I know. And I can't wait to get working on that, though neither your or Tony told me what my job will be..."

" _Since we'll be expanding I've already decided that the division will need a second-in-command to help delegate and keep the head of security informed._ "

Maria smiled a little, "I'll be working with Happy?"

Pepper sounded, strange, " _He's not the head of Security, where did you get that idea?_ "

"S.H.I.E.L.D. files on the company..."

" _Oh, well, um. No, that, he's a regional head, in Los Angeles. Pretty much just for our Headquarters._ "

"So who will I be working with and when do I get to meet him?"

Pepper let out a short laugh, which was odd, as she deflected, " _I don't think you'll be working with, Mary, directly, and I don't know when, she's in the field at the moment, rescuing Scientists from Hydra, and last I checked, on her way to hook back up with her field team._ "

Maria smiled a little, then the last bit filtered in. Back with her _Field Team?_ Then the slight hesitation on the name.

Her phone was _not_ secure.

* * *

She got into her private suite, ran her checks, then got out the tablet issued by Stark Industries - naturally it had a transparent monitor when switched off, and plugged into a base station for use as a proper laptop with keyboard. She brought up the incredible encrypted video call program that S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn't been able to crack, and smiled as Pepper in pyjamas appeared. Then her smile dropped as she saw that the sun was already up, making her realise the time, and Pepper looked _worried_.

"Pepper?"

" _Interesting thing just happened in the Atlantic. All the fuss from Paris, and already She's in another situation, she's had to divert to help deal with a situation on one of your carriers..._ "

Maria frowned, that would be the Illiad, and that worried her, as she realised the implications there. "What's the situation."

" _It's over, I... I better show you. This is Satellite Surveillance that we've been running..._ " An image of the Illiad came on, overhead, lit up in daylight. " _This was yesterday, and this is as of forty minutes ago..._ " another image appeared, not as bright, not quite sunrise in that part of the atlantic... and showing light amounts of debris, with a S.H.I.E.L.D. mobile command unit aircraft hovering near it.

"What happened?" She feared what it was. The Artefact.

" _I don't, quite, know how to describe it._ " Pepper entered a command, and the image was replaced with a full-motion video, in the pre-dawn darkness, only the lights of the carrier to show it was there. The remarkably crisp footage even showed the rough wake as the Illiad powered through the night. It slowly brightened, so dawn approaching, when it became visible. A Black mass spreading from the centre of the ship. She knew what it was, though how it was doing that, she didn't know. The artefact's two states always agreed on how much mass it actually had, and how dense it was. It always acted like a liquid would in whatever space it was in, this was different, it moved with, chaos, flowing like lightning, not water. And within three seconds of the video, having spread to both ends of the ships' deck, it, glowed, bright orange, then retreated-still orange, but taking everything it was in direct contact with. And that extended below the flight deck apparently, as she witnessed the ship, missing a significant portion of its mass, break up into pieces and sink into the ocean... then that familiar plane from before _decloak_ above the waves and began a search and rescue pattern.

As far as she knew, Coulson was the only one with an MCU, but it wasn't fitted with a cloaking device, the same as used on the Helicarrier and many of SHIELDS' Quinjets.

"What happened?"

Pepper sighed. " _That's what I've spent the last half-hour trying to figure out, and I can't get hold of Skye._ "

Maria nodded. Then the name hit. An MCU. Paris. A scientist rescue from Hydra. Seeing footage just yesterday hit the news while she was with May, and both complaining about a member of Coulson's team. Skye.

She had a headache. "This, Skye, does Tony know her? What's her experience level?" She hoped it wasn't the same Skye.

Pepper chuckled, " _He's the one who recruited her and made her Head of Security. Didn't care that everyone said she was too young. She's got a lot of experience, now at least, I wasn't sure about it myself, until she went undercover the first time, and by her third, it was rather, normal. She's given us a few near-heart attacks though. Two years ago, when we dealt with AIM and Killian? She'd already been on their tail due to suspicious activity in the hacker community..._ " _Oh god this is sounding like Skye_ , " _After She and Tony both handled destroying the group, both digitally and physically, she followed a trail to a hacker group that had somehow gotten hold of the research into Extremis, and that they'd sold the data to some supposed-think tank, and decided that the best way to move forward was to infiltrate the group. They were being particularly big pains in the butts for both of us at the time, so you might know the name, 'The Rising Tide'._ " Maria nodded slowly. " _She's had some pretty impressive success, a good dozen have gone to work for various intelligence agencies now. A few stuck around as just Rising Tide hackers though. But for the dangerous ones, I don't think you know this, but she's worked with a S.H.I.E.L.D. team for the past few months, taking them down and dealing with the think tank I mentioned, I don't recall the name, but it was some kind of insect._ "

"Centipede."

" _Yes, that was it._ " Pepper smiled, then shrugged, not noticing yet Maria's scowl. " _So you know that they took that research, and along with a few other things, actually got to the stage of enhancing people, but they hadn't solved the extremis instability._ " Pepper sighed, " _I thank god that Skye had the forethought to ask Tony for the drug that stabilised it, when she first went under. I saw on the news what happened in that train station, and who knows how much damage would have been done if she hadn't stuck him before they left her 'van'._ "

_SHE DID WHAT?!_

Maria remembered the part in the science twins' and Wards' reports, and later when Mr Peterson joined their team.

They all believed that it was the Night-Night gun ('Icer' is just so lame), but it was that Skye gave him the cure to the instability?

" _Honestly, when I saw the satellite image of that carrier,_ "

"The Illiad." Maria inserted flatly, but distracted by her thoughts.

" _Right, the Illiad, before I watched the video, I was honestly scared that, she had to overcharge herself... But the black stuff and that orange glow... that's not Extremis._ "

... Maria stared hard in shock.

Pepper finally noticed her looking, as it was now clear why Pepper hadn't known - she was doing paperwork, and Maria's gasp had been audible.

"She's enhanced with Extremis?"

Pepper just gave her a weird look, " _So am I, remember?_ " and held up a hand that she made glow, with a faint smile, reminding Maria that Tony hadn't removed the enhancements, only fixed them.

"HOW?"

" _Oh, I wasn't clear... She went undercover to investigate AIM, before all what happened with..._ " Pepper sighed. " _Killian. It was pretty easy for her to get into one of the test groups... I don't know how it happened, but she had been hurt long before we met, before Tony recruited her. Part of why so many were unsure about her, along with the age thing. I mean, how good as a hacker could she be when she had just one arm, never mind the rest?_ " Pepper grinned a little, " _It just made Tony feel so much more inadequate every time she'd touch a computer and get into systems he couldn't, and he's the one who saw her potential._ "

Maria felt faint... and she needed to end this before she had any more shocks.

She... Needed to talk to Coulson. He's the one who fought the girl's corner, and she needed to know if he'd kept it all from him.

"Pepper, I've got to go, but... Call me if you hear anything?"

" _Sure... And get some sleep, you look like hell._ "

* * *

**The Bus, Mid-Atlantic**

She woke with a sigh. Three hours of sleep and she was fine again. It helped that she had actually had enough to eat before her rest, that she could discreetly boost herself.

She flipped the covers off, and winced at the twinge from her thighs... and silently grumbled about needing to upgrade the sockets, even as she slowly got up and balanced precariously for a second, to recover equilibrium, and then dressed.

Outside of her sleeping pod, she found that the Bus was, rather crowded.

Between eating a very, very late dinner and going to sleep, she'd spent the first two hours of the dawn chasing them to the US Coast interviewing every single person now aboard her plane. Her training and more helped her know when someone was lying. Only two were infiltrators. Bobbi and Izzy had personally dealt with them once she'd gotten the evidence, and managed to trick both, separately, to reveal themselves.

It had been during those two interviews that she learned something that had given her nightmares during her rest. A truth about someone she'd thought a friend.

Ward is Hydra.

That had been the last thing to get evidence on before she slept, and she wished she had waited. Just because she managed three hours where she usually only managed half an hour, and felt physically better for it, didn't mean that she was fine mentally. Her sleep had been fitful.

Now, as she wandered toward the Kitchenette, she gave a few nods to the few agents that were still awake, though most were in the bunk beds hastily thrown together, trying to get to sleep.

Sandwich in hand, she moved toward the cockpit, only to find that one of the trusty pilots was already there, and waved her off with a comment about how little sleep she'd gotten.

She left with a frown, feeling horrible that she'd been thrown out of her own cockpit, then slapped herself. It wasn't hers. It was May's. Only, it wasn't May piloting, nor even Bobbi or Izzy, and both she'd be okay with for it.

She put a nose into the individual sleeping pods, to see Bobbi using Gemma's, and Izzy in Fitz' pods, both peacefully sleeping, dead to the world. One of Izzy's partners, a guy with the name of a state she couldn't recall was in Ward's. The Professor was in the spare pod, and a quick check saw that no one was using May's bed in the pod attached to the cockpit, it hadn't been accessed by anyone but herself even.

Tiptoeing to the rear, she found that two agents were in the conference room writing reports, though who they'd submit them to, she didn't know. Both looked tired.

In the rear lounge area, another agent was drinking his sorrows away.

She only checked the CCTV instead of entering, for the Cage. Both of the infiltrators were still dead to the world, Bobbi and Izzy both had one hell of a punch.

A trip downstairs, and she saw that the cargo area was housing a handful of agents, these ones looking more like mechanics than the field-agents upstairs. She'd have frowned at this, but it was their suggestion. Of the six beds there, two were unoccupied. Two men in overalls were neatly clearing the area up, given that they'd had to dig out some gear without concern for tidiness earlier. They had also finished putting the launch rail for the HAWDER away, she realized.

Quietly, she entered the research lab turned medbay. Inside were four scientists they'd managed to rescue, one with medical training. All four were slumped over the inactive holotable, butts firmly on chairs and they couldn't be comfortable.

And the two beds used for treatment were taken. One, with one of the youngest on the plane (not counting Skye herself), and the other with Mack.

She hoped he was awake, but it was not to be.

She sighed, and knowing that was everyone accounted for, she moved off, returning upstairs through the forward lower cargo hold, checking the area and doing a variety of tasks in between entering the area and ascending the forward stairs. And when she did, she didn't stop on the passenger deck, but continued on up to Coulson' office.

She hadn't been inside since Coulson had been aboard, but she needed to do some work that wouldn't wake anyone, and it wasn't being used.

The door opened to her command, and she locked it behind her, and sat at his desk. In the chair facing the desk, not the one behind it.

And wrote several messages.

' _Hey Pep. The carrier was a bust, only managed to get about twenty off before we had to destroy it. They've mostly agreed to go low-profile for the next month or two, but a handful need something productive to do so I've agreed for them to work as investigators within the Security Division at SI, even though they'll be working for me (they find it funny, but they actually listen to me without prompt, so, much better than most!) A pair of mechanic-types want out of the business but don't have the contacts, so for now they're sticking with the bus just in case. Talk soon._ '

' _Hi Dad. Sorry I'll be late, I've got to help some people, get squared away before I go to you-know-where. They're in trouble, so, and you know me. ;) -Mary. PS. I distinctly recall telling you, when you asked about my prosthetics! I thought you were fine about it!_ '

' _Meet at Point Halcyon, three days. If you don't show, I'll **hunt** you down. -Skye. PS. Guess who I'm with? Tweet Tweet!_ '

' _May, I don't want you to find out later from someone else and so be mad at me for not telling you, so I'm getting it over and done with and please don't be mad but I've just had one hell of a thirty-six hours, with very little time to rest, and I don't want to be the one to ding the plane on anything because I was too tired to notice how close to whatever the bus was, so someone else (who is Qualified and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) is in the cockpit just in case Autopilot fails or something comes up, but if something does, I've had some rest now so I'll take over. Oh. And the bus has about twenty shield Agents aboard that I rescued from a carrier called the Illiad. I'm sending a message to Coulson to debrief with him on it too so if you wait an hour, he should know by then. Just... don't know how I'm going to explain that one. Not for a debrief, anyway. -Skye. PS One of the agents is Isabelle Hartley. She's the only agent I'll trust to actually fly without the autopilot, if that's fine? And one last thing... DONT LET WARD NEAR THE TEAM! HE'S HYDRA. I'll explain where and how I learned later. And yes, I've verified it. Now we know what happened with Hand and the Fridge..._ '

' _Hey guys, just a warning, I need to tell May and Coulson how I just rescued about twenty S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from a carrier called the Illiad, and that given how it was overrun, I had to also destroy the ship, and... well, I don't think he'll react that well to it. So you might want to, ah, stand back, when he reads my message? Anyway, I'll see you soon, I've got a few stops before I get back to Prov! PS Fitz, Just tell her already! Or better yet, Actions Speak Louder Than Words._ '

' _May, still not told Coulson, I'm on my twelth draft already.... I'm Scared. HELP! Find attached my current draft!_ '

' _Thank you May... I'll start number twenty nine now! Did you check the intel I sent about Ward?_ '

* * *

 

' _.... This is my thirtieth draft, so know that I'm scared as hell you'll be angry with me, AC. You're awesome, and I thank whatever higher power that exists everyday that you decided to let me stay aboard despite everything, like my becoming a leader within the Tide while already a member of the team, and I'm still technically employed by that asses girlfriend, you know who, even though I do far more for the team than for the company. That you let so much of my past remain a mystery to you because that's all it is, the past, and you didn't want to dig up my demons just so S.H.I.E.L.D. could feel vindicated about thinking I was a threat to them, when you knew the truth, that I never was._

' _But one of those mysteries has reared its head, and this is something I want to share. No, not because it's already biting me in the ass for keeping it secret. (though it is doing that.) Remember how I told you about the brody's? How I was with them three times? Well, now we both know about that protocol to keep me moving, I guess we both understand why they failed to adopt me, even though I still view them as family. But After the third... I didn't tell you what happened, but I know you understood that it was a bad situation involving danger._

' _My dad got us out, but it was a little, public, and S.H.I.E.L.D. stepped in. Anyway the simple thing of it was that he saved me and a girl I still call sister from some bad guys, and S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited him. For some reason he forgot that I told him about my job, and after recent problems, he's somehow learned about it but not from remembering. He's pretty bad ass so I need to go see him first, before returning to Prov. Still trying to work out **how** he found out..._

_'Second thing that's related, is that the sister I mentioned? Well I only found out about **twelve hours ago** but she also got recruited after she got her two PhD's. And that happened because that was when the Bus picked up an encrypted signal from the Illiad. I presume you know it's a S.H.I.E.L.D. Aircraft Carrier - regular, not Heli! So Disappointed ! ;-) :-P . I couldn't just, do nothing. Anyway I was on my way there, and reading the personnel files of everyone aboard. Just doing that let me know it was mostly overrun with Hydra. I mean seriously, just the Level four-accessible files showed me how bad most of them were._

' _But what shocked me was that some of the clearly-loyalists included my sister, and she's awesome. And she used to work with you! Anyway, I went, I met up with, We Kicked ASS, I rescued about sixty shield Loyalists, twenty aboard the Bus now (I forgot the rest, they left in quinjets, though I already told May about the ones aboard the bus) And I'm taking them to Baltimore. I'll let you figure out what I will be doing there, given it's me. But Bobbi's staying with me after that. I'm... I'm going to bring her back to Prov once we've met up with my Dad, she's kinda antsy about it. She told me she's actually worked with my dad a handful of times, and apparently, he wasn't happy that she had yet to tell me about joining S.H.I.E.L.D. I told her like, two days after Peru that I'd joined up, so I'm not happy with her either, though I'm just so relieved that she's safe now that I just can't be angry about it. Anyway another agent that Bobbi has asked me to keep with us is her SO, Isabelle Hartley. Way back after Bobbi first joined up and she'd managed to swing a handful of visits, she brought her along twice so we've already met, but I don't know her well enough, so I'm asking if you will authorise 'Izzy' to come along to Prov? Yes, I'm saying Bobbi coming is non-negotiable, but asking about Isabelle. But I don't know her, I just know in my gut she's not Hydra... Unlike someone else. And this is the big one, the one I'm worried most about your reaction to._

' _I actually told May already, and asked her not to tell you because I wanted to be the one, but well, I was having so much trouble dealing with the facts that I couldn't get it down properly. I sent her the intel so she can verify it herself for you, but, well... Right. Here goes._ '

' _Ward Is Hydra. He has been all along. He was recruited right out of Juvie by Garrett. Garrett isn't Dead, they raided the Fridge together. You can thank him for your recent trouble in Oregon. And I don't know if this is the case or not, but right now, I believe Agent Hand to be dead. I have a program running keeping an eye out just in case she shows up anywhere, healthy or not, and my gut says she's a loyalist in a big way, so I doubt she's just in hiding. As for Ward... It's weird. He's Hydra, but... there's something there, I don't know what, but... my gut said something was wrong, has been for a while, since just after peru, but it's also saying that he's not all the way to Hydra. That Garrett is a big influence in him being Hydra. .. That his anger at how 'The Clairvoyant' had me shot for, you know what, was actually real. I... We both know that he's supposedly been developing feelings for me, and my gut says they're real... and how do I deal with that? May's already pissed off for reasons we both know about. And yes, I knew. Very little passes me by, kinda like how it is with you, actually. How do I deal with that I think a Hydra agent is or already has fallen for me? I don't know what that translates to regarding his actions now Hydra is in the open, and I'm scared to test any theory in that regard. I'm just glad he knows as little now as you did right before I gave you my full file..._

' _Anyway, This is long enough, I'll... let you get your head around that. Um... Something that just occurred to me when I put 'my full file', I don't think you've read all that far, though with all the stuff about the index I think I know one bit you got to. At the time, you looked like you had suddenly understood something about me, so I'm guessing you made the connection between my job and why I ended up with the Tide? A certain target thing? I'll let you go now. Thanks. See you at Providence... Now one more maybe-angry guy to deal with, dad. Yay._

 _-Skye_ '

Coulson blinked as he finished reading the letter. He looked up at May, who was scowling at nothing. Probably about Ward.

That wasn't that had him in shock though.

He looked around the house, then at Laura as she came in.

"Laura Brody?" He blurted out.

Laura paused and nodded with a distant look, "My maiden name, Clint took it when we first married. How did you...?"

Coulson muttered as he went back to the letter, then looked up in startled surprise... "Does... Does she know Clint's an _Avenger_...?"

Laura blinked... as did May, who was wondering what that was about.

"... I don't think he told her? But why wouldn't she know, they're public figures now..."

Coulson couldn't help the sudden giggle.


End file.
